It's all woman: Part II
by I.S.O.D
Summary: Happens after the Christmas Party. Greg’s being mopey but turns ok(ish) in the end!


Title: It's all woman. Part II  
Author: I.S.O.D  
Fandom: CSI  
Pairings: Greg and Rachael  
Spoilers: Nope  
Sequel/series: Second in the series 'It's all woman'  
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine (well except Rachael), but I would be soooo happy if they were!  
Summary: Happens after the Christmas Party. Greg's being mopey but turns ok(ish) in the end!

Part 1: The Crimelab 

Everyone was still worried about Greg. They'd all come back off various Christmas vacations to find Greg working quietly in the lab, no loud music playing, no resounding laugh that cheered everyone up and no bad jokes.

'What's up with Greg? Has he been like this the whole of Christmas?' Sara, Nick and Warrick were all sitting in the break room eating their breakfast having a conversation whose topic was becoming very familiar.

'Yep, I think he was here on Christmas Day,' Warrick said sadly.

'Ouch! But I think I've finally worked it out,' Nick said slowly choosing his words carefully.

'Come on then, bro, spill it!' Warrick pushed.

'I think he's in love,' Nick sighed.

'Who?' asked Sara, with a little too much enthusiasm.

'Rachael, Archie's girlfriend.'

'Oh,' Sara said sounding disappointed.

'But I don't know what he can do. I mean, Archie and Rachael seemed really in love at the party. Did you know she moved all the way from _England_ just to be with him _all_ the time. She moved away from all her family and friends just to be with the guy she loved in a strange country. I could never do that, man,' nick said sounding impressed at Rachael's courage and depressed for Greg's predicament.

Meanwhile Greg was sitting in the DNA lab, oblivious to the discussion in the break room, methodically going through some evidence for Grissom and Sara's case. But you could tell that his mind and heart just weren't on the job he was doing it almost automatically. Suddenly the sound of his pager broke him out of his self-inflicted daze. He glanced down at it and saw:

'Someone at reception, says it's urgent'

Greg was intrigued as to who this mystery person was, so he decided he needed a break and started to make his way to the reception.

When he got there he saw the one person he had been avoiding… Rachael.

'Hey Kimmie I think you paged the wrong person,' he said to the receptionist.

'No, she didn't,' Rachael answered for her. 'I nee… I mean I wanted to see you. You _never_ returned my calls,' she said sadly.

'Because you're one of my best friend's girlfriend and I can't trust myself around you,' Greg thought.

'Sorry, I've been really busy,' was all he said cringing at the overused cliché coming out of his mouth.

'Look, if you didn't _want_ to see or talk to me, that is fine but you _don't_ have to _totally_ ignore me!' she said starting to get angry.

Greg started to feel even worse as he could see tears forming in the corners of her eyes but he wasn't sure if they were from her anger or she was just upset at his dishonesty.

'Look, shall we go somewhere more private, then we can talk more,' he said gesturing towards one of the interrogation rooms.

'NO! It's your turn to feel unwanted and lonely. Call _me_ when you're less 'busy',' she said bitterly making 'busy' sound like a dirty word.

With that she turned and walked out of the front door, leaving a gape mouthed Greg standing speechless in the reception.

'You know that's Archie's girlfriend, right?' asked Kimmie.

'Yeah, I know,' Greg said sadly.

It was about a week later and everyone was in the break room having a rest between cases. Greg was sat at the table with his feet resting on it reading his 'Cult Times' magazine.

Sara, Nick and Warrick were all sat in the comfortable chairs eating snacks talking about random things.

Greg suddenly stopped reading when he heard Sara say Rachael's name.

'Hey, did you know Rachael dumped Archie?'

'No way,' exclaimed Nick. 'Bet he's totally gutted.'

'Actually no. He's totally _pissed_!' Sara told them.

'Why?' Warrick said leaning forward.

'Supposedly,' she said lowering her voice and also leaning forward. This meant Greg had to put his magazine on the table and lean forward so it looked like he was reading.

'She dumped him because she says she's in love with someone else,' she continued.

Greg had been leaning so far forward in order to hear what Sara was saying that his chair was on tow legs. When he heard this he was so surprised that his chair toppled over leaving him on the floor with a chair over him like a roof.

Sitting on the floor with the chair over his head Greg felt sudden waves of guilt wash over him as Rachael's words hit him again.

'I nee… I mean… It's your turn to feel unwanted and lonely!'

'Oh my God!' he thought. 'I'm the someone else.'

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Sara, Nick and Warrick were standing round looking down at him sitting on the floor with a chair over his head.

'Hey Greg,' Nick said.

Greg jumped when he heard Nick's voice and knocked his head on the chair still on top of him.

'Whoa, sorry man didn't mean to make you jump! We just wanted to check if you were OK? We saw you fall off you chair and you hadn't got up so we were checking you hadn't knocked yourself out!' Nick looked apologetic.

'Nah man, I'm fine. Just got a bruised ego but no broken bones,' Greg said with a faint smile getting up from under the chair and picking up the chair and setting right.

'Anything on your mind?' Sara asked sympathetically. 'You looked a bit spaced sitting there.'

'Huh? Oh nothing's wrong. Just thinking about some DNA, talking about DNA I better get back to my lab, you know loadsa work to do,' Greg said quickly backing away from Sara, Nick and Warrick and rushing out of the break room and into the safety of his lab.

'I've got to talk to her,' Greg thought as he was sorting through some evidence about an hour after his accident in the break room. With that thought he left his evidence, took his phone and walked outside to talk to Rachael.

He dialled her number when he's made sure no one else was around. She picked up after a couple of rings.

'I've been waiting for you to call,' she said as she answered the phone.

'You dumped Archie for somebody else,' Greg said simply.

'Oh stop talking about yourself in the third person!' she said sounding slightly annoyed.

'So it is me then?' Greg asked.

'Of course it is! I couldn't stop thinking about you after the party and you seemed really interested in me but then you didn't return my call. And I got paranoid. I need to talk to you in person Greg. When can you finish work?'

'in about an hour, I'll come round to your place.'

OK, see you then,' she said sounding a little happier.

'Yeah, bye,' Greg replied letting the phone fall away from his ear. 'Oh god, what am I doing!' he said to himself.

'Looks like you've just finished a phone call to me,' Greg heard a familiar voice behind him say. He spun around and came face to face with Archie.

'Oh hey man! You alright?' Greg asked trying his best to look and sound sympathetic but inside he was feeling like shit.

'Yeah, I'm holding up,' Archie said sadly. 'I'm more pissed than anything! I mean she dumped me for somebody else and didn't even have the guts to tell me who it was!'

Greg sighed inwardly; at least Archie didn't know it was him.

'Look man, we'll talk more later yeah? Otherwise Grissom's gonna skin me for taking so long and not finishing his evidence,' Greg said after an awkward silence.

'Sure, that's cool, I'll see you later.'

Greg walked back towards the crimelab doors, inwardly kicking himself.

'How can I do this to one of my best friends,' he thought for about the hundredth time after meeting Rachael, as he walked back to his lab.

Part 2: Rachael's House 

Greg walked up to the front door just as he was going to ring the doorbell the door whipped open. Rachael grabbed his arm and yanked him inside. He opened his mouth to say something and Rachael pulled his face towards hers.

It was the most ferocious kiss that Greg had ever experienced, all the pent up feelings of the past two months were poured into that one kiss.

Before Greg knew what was happening Rachael was guiding them towards the bedroom.

Part 3: The Crimelab 

'Hey, has anyone seen Greg?' Nick asked as he walked out of the DNA lab.

'Not sure but I think he went home sick about an hour ago,' Sara told him as she walked down the corridor towards trace.

'Oh, OK. Maybe I'll just ring his house to see how he is.'

Nick walked into the locker room and got his cell out of his locker. He dialled Greg's house number; it rang a couple of times then went to the answer phone:

'Hi, this is Greg's. as you probably guessed I can't get to the phone right now but if you leave a message I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Wait for the beep!'

Nick decided not to leave a message because he didn't want to disturb Greg too much as he assumed he was in bed.

Part 4: Rachael's House 

There were clothes all over the floor.

'Look, I've gotta go,' Greg said sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and starting to look for his clothes.

'Why? I thought you'd finished work,' Rachael said also sitting up and wrapping the sheet around her.

'I have finished work,' Greg replied pulling on his trousers.

'Then why do you have to go? Come back to bed,' she pleaded with him.

'No! I can't do this to Archie, it'll kill him!'

'You're not hurting Archie, we broke up.'

'Yes, but I'm the reason you broke up and I can't live with myself knowing that I did that to something so good. He's like my best friend Rachael. No I can't do this,' he finished getting up and walking out of the bedroom.

Greg found his shoes and bent down to put them on. When he straightened up he found his way out of the front door blocked by Rachael standing wrapped in the bed sheet.

'Move,' Greg said simply.

'No! I broke up with Archie for you!'

'That was your decision not mine. I was quite happy on my own!' Greg said spitefully hoping this would make her move.

'You'll regret this!' Rachael said fiercely finally moving out of Greg's way.

'Yeah, probably,' Greg said to himself. 'But I value Archie's friendship more than this,' he thought as he walked out the front door and into his car.

Part 5: The Crimelab 

'Hey, d'you hear,' Greg heard Sara say to Warrick and Nick as he walked past the evidence room.

'What?' Nick asked intrigued.

'Rachael, Archie's ex. Moved back to England yesterday.'

'Poor Archie! He must be gutted,' Warrick said sympathetically.

'Yeah, but you know what that means,' she said quietly.

'No what?' asked Nick.

'It didn't work out with the 'somebody else',' said Warrick as the concept of what Sara was saying finally sunk in.

'Yeah, that's right!' thought Greg carrying walking down the corridor. 'Because the 'somebody else' had conscience.

THE END


End file.
